Ode to Johanna Kuiper | A unique and fearless feminist

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Johanna (Hannie) Kuiper was born in 1896 in the Mennonite parsonage in Warga, Friesland, and grew up in Amsterdam, where her father had become pastor of the Singelkerk of the Mennonite Congregation in 1891. After a turbulent life as a writer, translator, bomb mother, socialite, lover, resistance worker in WWII and author of two children's bibles, she died unexpectedly in Semarang (Java) in 1956 during a family visit to newly independent Indonesia.

For me Johanna has a personal meaning because at a certain stage of our lives we both lived outside Amsterdam in the hamlet of Etersheim (municipality of Edam-Volendam). Johanna lived there around World War II in the parsonage with her husband Pastor Schipper. I was involved - more than 10 years ago - in the renovation of the adjacent old village school, which housed a children's book museum. Johanna Kuiper's books are an important part of the collection there and her work as a children's book author gets a lot of attention.

Because of the presentation of the Yad Vashem award to his parents and the PR surrounding the dissertation on Johanna, I was approached by her son Kristofer in 2015 to help with the organization. He involved me in his efforts to erect a memorial stone in memory of his parents' resistance work at the rectory, which at the time housed Jewish people in hiding. Hannie and her husband are now remembered there annually on May 4. 

'When the elderly couple Will Völger (1893-1968) and Hilde Völger-Hoppe (1894-1984) finally received permission to leave the GDR in the year 1967 and they crossed the zonal border into West Germany, they carried with them only the essentials. More was not allowed. But in Hilde's suitcase was room for a pack of nearly 200 letters that her Dutch heart friend Johanna (Hannie) Kuiper had written to her over a period of thirty years. These letters, written in German, were later given to Kristofer Schipper, Hannie's youngest son. They form the common thread in the biography “Daring Life, Johanna Kuiper (1896-1956),” in which Ferdinand van Melle describes her turbulent, unorthodox life.'

Significance for Amsterdam
Johanna E. Kuiper wrote many articles and books between 1925 and 1956, including nearly fifty children's and youth books. Personal development and autonomy are important themes in them. In addition to being a writer, she made her mark as a socialist and feminist, not only by writing articles but also through practical community work. Helping Jewish people in hiding during World War II posthumously earned her and her husband the Yad Vashem award in 2015.

In 2020, Amsterdam decided to name a bridge in Nieuw West after writer, feminist and socialite Johanna Kuiper, who also supported those in hiding during WWII.

Johanna also deserves a place of honor in “Women of Amsterdam.

Jetty Voermans

Sources

J. J. F. van Melle, 'Johanna E. Kuiper 1896 Daring life 1956' (Thesis, Amsterdam 2015) ISBN 9789082331400

J. J. F. van Melle, 'Daring life, Johanna Kuiper (1896-1956)' ISBN 9789464551075

Janneke van der Veer, 'Kuiper, Johanna Engelberta (1896-1956)', Digital Women's Lexicon of the Netherlands

Marlinde van der Breggen, 'Hannie could make a story out of nothing', Trouw 05-03-2015

Thea de Hilster, Exhibition brochure 2015. 'Johanna Kuiper 1896-1956, (children's book) writer, translator, pastor's wife in Etersheim'

Lars van der Kooij, 'Free People and Free Love with Johanna Kuiper'. Infinite North Holland 08-02-2017